borealis
by hyperphonic
Summary: Beside him, Tenten runs her fingers over the foible of her katana, true edge facing the door. "They want your eyes." It is not a question.


**for**: tay because she understands my need for this ship and giselle, because that's just how it is

**because**: nejiten is the blood in my veins

**notes**: i've been reading a lot of goldberry and NessieGG's works, as they were a huge influence on me as a young reader and I hope that shows through in this piece; regardless, i've had this plot eating me alive for a while and was quite glad to get it out.

if _you've_ got a plot that's eating you alive i'm always taking prompts on my tumblr, _hyperphonic_

* * *

aurora borealis

əˈrôrə,ôˈrôrə / (ˌbɔːrɪˈeɪlɪs)

_noun_

I. a natural electrical phenomenon characterized by the appearance of streamers of reddish or greenish light in the sky, usually near the northern or southern magnetic pole.

II. literally; _northern dawn_

* * *

Upon initial mission assignment, Hyuuga Neji is not pleased; the North is an unforgiving place full of craggy mountains and trees twisted and stunted by the wind. Their mission is billed as a month and a half minus travel, and the Godaime apologizes for the cold even as she's handing them the scroll, "I'm _sure_ the two of you will find a way to keep warm." Tenten laughs and airily waves a hand, blushing slightly as the blond carries on. "Plus you two were requested by name, perk up!"

Neji just stares.

* * *

Preparation is natural by now and, as is the norm, the white-eyed nin is finished first (he has no armory to sort and pack). So he finds himself sprawled (with as much dignity as one _can_ sprawl) on his teammates bed, watching her move about the room contentedly. "You don't look too pleased," the warm girl comments, a katana balanced in one calloused palm.

"I don't like the cold." Is his droll response.

Tenten doesn't buy it for a second, he can tell; but she also doesn't prod, and for that he is thankful. (He's even more grateful for the lingering kiss she presses against his mouth before flitting away to snag another blade.)

* * *

They set out at dawn, leaving behind the familiar bustle and birdsong of Konoha. Neji wonders what the Village Hidden in the Night will be like- winter in his village is little more than rain and bare trees, the issued gear weighing down his pack indicates that his destination will be anything but.

* * *

They're still a week's travel away when his suspicions are confirmed. The towering trees the Konoha nin are so used to petered away long ago, and now the pair trekked through glacier carved valleys where the sparse trees hardly cleared their heads. Tenten thinks it's beautiful, she loves the way the wind plays through the canyon, sending hemlock bowing and causing the mountains to sing.

* * *

In it's defense, the tundra does make bedding quite comfortable indeed, the spongy ground beneath their bedrolls soothing. "And it's even dead," Tenten notes as she curls into his side, nose tucking against his neck in a familiar embrace. Neji nods and holds her tighter, "we don't have long before the snow hits, there was termination dust on the mountains today." Now it's her turn to nod, "we'll pick up the pace."

* * *

And so they do, flying across the rolling terrain towards the snow, closing in and gaining elevation all at once. Tenten makes it to the top of the valley first, standing proudly among the cold, thin air with her white clothes lighting up under the sun.

She looks ethereal and natural and Neji has to stop to catch his breath.

* * *

After the initial climb out of the valley, the elevation gain is much more subtle, nearly unnoticeable as they run along the ridge, wind whipping against upturned faces. Up here it is snowy in earnest, dusky rocks only barely peaking through the fluffy white layer. Down beneath them in the valley the tundra now matches, though the covering is nowhere near as complete. In a few days though, Neji knows it will all be lost in the white.

* * *

"It seems a lot of work," Tenten shrugs as they shed their nin gear a few miles out form the village. "To come all the way here and go undercover just to shut down one low class crime ring." The observation is muffled by a shirt pulled over her head, and Neji smiles fondly as he does the same before responding, "it's suspicious." And that was why he hadn't slept easy since reading the mission scroll, tossing and turning and analyzing until his thoughts were convoluted past repair.

"There's something we weren't told."

* * *

When they enter the village Tenten is on his arm, hair unbound and lean legs flashing through a slit skirt. He is still unsettled, alert past even his normal levels of mission wariness, and even the warm feeling of Tenten against his side didn't help to ease it any.

The village itself is breathtaking, growing out of the mountain and into the mountain and shrouded in a light, crystalline ice fog. "It doesn't seem like it's hidden in the night," the weapons mistress muses from her perch beside the window, clothes and kunai strewn across the floor around her. "The inn keeper said that there were a few days of light left," he replies from the corner of the bed, legs unfolding to carry him to her side. A soft kiss is pressed against her neck, and suddenly the night, or lack thereof, is forgotten.

* * *

"Tonight we're going to meet with the ringleader," a grimace, "he's more than willing to believe we're an asset he wants." Tenten nods and pulls her hair over one shoulder before shrugging on a coat of Neji's. "I still don't understand why-" He is cut short by the feeling of calloused hands curling into his shirt as Tenten rolled onto her toes to kiss him. "We will, soon, maybe tonight."

* * *

As it were, it took two weeks, the falling of night (it really _did_ throw the village into a limbo the Konoha nin had never encountered), and an additional two meetings with the thug nin leader before they got any leads.

"He's affiliated with Kumo."

Tenten's voice is quiet, dark eyes wide as she struggles to breathe, the weight of the realization sinking in like blood into snow.

* * *

Neji sends a messenger hawk back to Konoha the next day, brows knit together as he told them of their unease, suspicions regarding why they'd been requested, and the implied objectives of their target. Beside him, Tenten runs her fingers over the foible of her katana, true edge facing the door.

"They want your eyes." It is not a question.

* * *

Eyes are nice, the young Hyuuga decides. Eyes allow him to track teammates and targets in battle, allow him to trace the gentle slope of his lovers shoulder and press a kiss against Tenten's pulse. Where his eyes leave gaps, his mind fills in, and vice versa. He hasn't seen the sun in three and a half weeks, but he can remember how it pours over Konoha and kisses the bridge of Tenten's nose.

Here there is only dark.

Until one night, exactly twenty-eight days into the damned mission, when the sky comes alive. "Oh," he breathes, pale eyes widening at the greens and pinks curtaining among the stars. "Tennie," long fingers curl around her shoulder and slowly she opens her eyes, clearly confused. "Come look," he gestures to the window and she blinks, wrapping the comforter around her shoulders before reluctantly sliding out of bed.

The sentiment is short lived, dying as she gasps and turns back to him. "What?" Long arms twine around her waist and he shrugs, "I'm not sure." There's never been anything like it in Konoha before.

Together they stand on the cold floor, wide eyes reflecting the aurora until they cannot hold them open anymore.

* * *

"_Shit_", the kunoichi snarls, teeth baring as she launches a volley of kunai at the man opposite her. Neji is incapacitated on the floor and she feels like her heart could beat right out her chest.

However terrifying the current situation was, Tenten took comfort in the fact that the hasty Kumo nin had made their move too soon, and clearly hadn't anticipated her strength.

The sedative they'd downed Neji with wouldn't last forever.

* * *

In the end, Tenten had been forced to kill the ringleader, katana cleanly cutting his throat as she fought back a sneer. The handful of Chuunin he'd brought dispersed quickly, like mice from a sudden burst of light, afraid of the small girl with fire in her eyes.

Neji was not going to lose his life, (freedom, sight, heart) on some cold, drafty floor because Kumo wanted his kekkei genkai. Not her Neji, not as long as she had a blade.

* * *

The first thing Neji is aware of upon waking is that he clearly hasn't been abducted or thrown in a lab. He can tell by the warmth in the sheets around him and the light smell of Tenten wreathing in his nose. "You're awake," and thin hands are skating down his chest, eliciting a smile as he slowly opens his eyes.

It is dark, of course, but he can clearly see by the light of the moon and the brightness of Tenten's smile. "Lee and Sakura are in the other room," she murmurs, smile only widening as sluggish hands come up to cup her face. "She's been dealing with the dignitaries all day, apparently the corruption was hardly rooted at all." Neji nodded, though the information wasn't sticking in the least. "It was a breakaway sect, and they've been dealt with." She leans down to ghost a kiss against his unbound brow, lips falling directly atop his curse seal. "We'll head home in a day or two, as soon as Sakura decides you've slept off the sedative."

It ends up being three days before the rosy medic decides that the Hyuuga is well enough to begin the trek. Tenten might be kidding herself, but she thinks the sky looks a little lighter as they descend the ridgeline back towards the sun.


End file.
